Hello friends and family! I know you have been eager to get an update from me, so I’ll do my best to put it all down in words. Words have been really hard to come up with since I’ve been here and I think it’s because there has been so much to process. Please bear with me!
I’m going to start off by explaining some World Race lingo so that the blogs will be easier to understand. The World Race ‘launches’ missionaries in the months of January, August, and October. There are usually 5 squads that launch at a time. A squad can have anywhere from 30-50 people on it. Each squad follows a different route and is given a letter of the alphabet. Once they’re through the alphabet they start over. My squad is 5th generation K-Squad and our route is Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Some of those countries may change for safety reasons along the way. For example, we were originally supposed to go to El Salvador and have been rerouted to Honduras, and Nicaragua was rerouted to Guatemala. My squad is comprised of 32 missionaries and 2 squad leaders. Squad leaders are people who have been on the race before and are there to help guide us along the way. Our squad of 32 is broken down into 5 teams of 6-7 people. My team is Team Harbor and we have 3 men and 3 women. Team changes will happen at various points throughout the race, and chances are I will be with this team for about 4 months. Our squad travels to each country together, but upon arrival we break into our teams and head to separate locations. Occasionally teams will be placed together. Rachael and Katie are our squad leaders and they spend about ten days to two weeks at a time visiting teams. They help out spiritually, logistically, ministry-wise, etc. My team started our race with Rachael by our side. It has been the biggest blessing to have her here pouring into us and helping set the tone for our team. Each team has a team leader and a treasurer. The team leader facilitates the group and is the point of contact for the hosts in each place. The treasurer is in charge of managing the budget that Adventures in Missions (AIM) gives us. Each squad also has a squad mentor. The squad mentor is someone that lives in Georgia and works for Adventures in Missions, the parent organization of the World Race. Our squad mentor is Allison! She is INCREDIBLE. We met her on day one of training camp back in June and she was a big part of preparing our hearts and minds for this journey that we are now on. She flies out periodically throughout the race for debrief. Debrief is a time set aside at the end certain months for reflection and rest. We will talk through struggles, share good things, talk about what could have gone better, what went well, etc. It will help us recharge to head into the next few months.
Our whole squad has made it to Panama! We arrived on August 8th and split up to find our ministry locations. My team is in Las Lajas, Panama. We are right on the beach! Our hosts, Danny and Heather, are wonderful and have already taught us so much in one week’s time. Danny was born in Panama, but went to school in the states and served in the US Navy. Heather grew up in Maryland and spent her young adulthood as an ASL interpreter and then a missionary in Puerto Rico. Heather and Danny ended up moving to Panama because Danny had a heart to come back and share Jesus in his home country. Heather has a huge heart for the deaf population so a lot of their ministry has to do with seeking out the deaf people here. They serve the people of Las Lajas with prayer nights and church services in their home. We just started helping them prepare the grounds for the future home of Bethel Church. Bethel means “house of God.” Several times a week, Heather and Danny go to an indigenous village 45 minutes up the road called Oma. They originally found Oma because a member of their community asked Danny to come and preach there. The night they visited, Heather shared that she knows the Lord because a deaf person shared the gospel with her. Afterward, a man approached Heather and said his grandson, Moises, is deaf and cannot communicate with them. Heather fell in love with little Moises and has been teaching him sign language since. Oma has been the team’s favorite part of being here. It is amazing to be submerged in a culture so drastically different from ours and feel instantly connected to them simply because we love and serve the same Jesus. Heather goes up to the school on Friday mornings to teach children with disabilities in Oma. Last Friday my teammate and I went with Heather and the three of us were able to give one on one attention to the kids. This allowed Heather to teach Moises more words in sign language. She said the one on one attention was wonderful for them. A few nights a week, Heather and Danny go to Oma and put on soccer and basketball tournaments for the older kids and play various games with the little ones. We have also been doing prayer walks on the beach and inviting locals to English classes. We host the English classes at our house on Mondays and Wednesdays from 4-6pm. Heather says that the locals are all really eager to learn English. My teammate, Zach, met a local on the beach that knows some English and they set up a time to teach one another more of their native language! We are all really excited to see that relationship grow.
As a team, we have been trying to set a rhythm for the month and learn the ropes. It’s a lot harder to live in close quarters with 6 other humans than I thought, but because of that, I’ve already learned a lot about living in a community that loves one another fiercely and calls each other higher. I love learning from them.
As far as mentally/emotionally I keep asking myself, “Is this real life?”
I was walking on the beach during quiet time the other day and just enjoying some sweet solitude with the Lord. The beach here is beautiful and because its rainy season we’re usually some of the only people there. Listening to the waves hit the shore I literally laughed out loud and thought to myself, “I’m on the World Race.” I asked the Lord repeatedly to let that truly sink in. It seemed so surreal. Then I felt the transition come over me and God correct that to “We are on the World Race.”
The assurance of that togetherness released tension from my shoulders that I didn’t realize was there. I’m so thankful to be here.
We don’t have WiFi very often, but I promise more updates are on their way. I feel like I could write for hours from all that I have learned. It is crazy to think that its only been one week! The Lord can do a lot in seven days.
Some of my thank you notes got away from me as I was preparing to leave on this big adventure, so I want to take a moment to say thank you to each and every one of you reading this and to everyone that has contributed prayer and/or financial support. I really do feel saturated in prayer! Thank you for being a part of this with me. Love and blessings to everyone!
